Robotic Toys
| Danny Choo of Culture Japan, is busy working on the first ever 3D printed interactive robotic smartphone controlled "Smart Doll". |
The first ever 3D printed interactive robotic smartphone controlled doll or,"Smart Doll" is modeled after the character Mirai Suenaga, the mascot character for the Culture Japan brand.
Mirai Suenaga was born in 2007, according to Danny Choo of Culture Japan, Mirai has had appearances in Japanese games, anime and has even become a mascot on Malaysia's electronic payment system cards called Touch n Go. Mirai has also had figures made of her and her own cosplay page.
Everything for the doll has been designed in 3D CAD software, including SolidWorks, ZBrush and 3DS Max. By digitially sculpting the form, the team can not only make modifications easily, but also use the data to make interesting animation sequences.
Choo used ZBrush software to sculpt the body. Then the data is imported into 3DS Max for various tweaks and to make sure everything moves and fits together.
Netfabb was used to prepare the data and .stl files are then sent to an Envisiontec Ultra 3D printer to print the parts. While printing, a DLP projector projects a slice of the 3D model downwards onto a bath of liquid resin. The area exposed to the light hardens and the build plate moves down into the bath by about 0.2mm where the process is repeated until the 3D model is complete.
The support structures can be easily snapped off by hand and the remaining bits have to be snipped off and sanded down. Total cost of printing is about $1000 US, writes Choo.
Smart Doll has all the robotics completely hidden underneath the soft vinyl skin. It has 24 servo motors to control the movement for the hands, limbs and arms. The arm even contains sensors which detect their current location. The CPU unit is completely custom built and will be installed in the removable head. Along with this, the multiple sensors which include touch, ultrasound, visual, acoustic and location sensors provide for all the robotic smartness of this doll.
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Choo is working on the development of the software which controls all 24 servomotors and users will be able to operate their Mirai doll with a smartphone. A speaker will be installed which works with sensors so that the Smart Doll can say things like "welcome back home". And it will also notify users about Twitter and Facebook mentions via movement.
Mirai is not designed to walk but she will be able to balance and shift her hips left & right, back & forth. Eyes and mouth will not move, only cute head motions.
Choo plans to mass-produce this doll once the team has got all the design right. They will make parts using injection molding which is more suitable for mass production.
SOURCE 3Ders, Danny Choo
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